UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that ‘the really hard work begins on Friday’ with regard to reaching a diplomatic solution in Syria. “Nobody underestimates the difficulty of this issue,” he announced on the first day of peace talks in Switzerland.

UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi added that it was unclear whether
they would be able to successfully bring the two Syrian sides
face to face in the same room on Friday, which is when the rival
Syrian delegations said that they will sit down for direct talks.

“Hopefully by the afternoon we will be able to meet with both
sides in one room…of course the results will not be brought about
in a speedy way, this will take a great deal of time,”
Brahimi said. He stated that he will be meeting with the Syrian
delegations separately on Thursday, prior to the first round of
negotiations.

As questions were fielded, Ban added that all parties must
“respect international humanitarian law”, which he said
had been “flagrantly violated in this conflict.” While
state institutions must be preserved, civilians are facing
desperate health conditions, he pointed out. He further stated
that he has urged the Syrian government to release detainees as a
confidence-building measure.

Ban added that arrangements must be made for a local ceasefire
and urged for the resolution of the violent conflict in the
country to be conducted through political dialogue, rather than
military means.

“There is no other solution,” he said. “I have been
urging all the countries - who have been providing arms to either
side…[to] stop - and encourage them to engage in political
dialogue.”

Some 100,000 people have been killed over the course of the
conflict, and millions displaced.

The Geneva communiqué seeks to formulate plans for political
transition within Syria.

However, Wednesday’s talks witnessed fraught scenes between
international heavyweights, with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid
Muallem telling US Secretary of State John Kerry that no one had
the right to “withdraw legitimacy” from the Syrian president or
government.

Kerry reiterated his stance on the Syrian government, insinuating
that there will be no resolution until Assad is removed from
government. “Saving Syria is impossible while Assad remains
in power,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Kerry said the purpose was to create a
transitional government and that the outcome of the talks
“cannot be about one man, or one family, insisting on
clinging to power.” Syrian delegates responded stating that
there would be no transfer of power.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged both the Syrian
opposition and its foreign backers not to concentrate their focus
exclusively on a change of leadership in the country.

“As for guarantees that the talks will not collapse - it is
necessary to influence both delegations so that this does not
happen,” Lavrov said after talks on Wednesday. “The main
thing is to start the process," he said, adding that the
less-difficult issues to resolve would be ensuring humanitarian
aid, prisoner swaps, and other confidence-building steps.

Bashar Jaafari, the current Syrian representative at the UN, told
the international meeting that “we will hopefully engage in a
process of dialogue mainly aiming at implementing the provisions
of Geneva 1.”

He added that Syria needs encouragement to engage in a
“sincere and honest” end to the violence, stating that
the problem of terrorism also needs to be resolved. Jaafari
expressed disappointment that an Iranian delegation was not
present at the talks.

“So we had today 40 countries seemingly pre-selected in a way
that most of them would be anti-Syrian delegations, meaning that
they are coming from governments who do have hostile policies
towards the Syrian government,” he pointed out.

Kerry hinted at the possibility of Iran joining the talks.

“Iran certainly does have an ability to be helpful and make a
difference,” Kerry said, echoing Ban’s sentiment that
countries in the region are a key part of the process.

“We hope they will decide to be constructive and make a
decision to operate in a way going forward that can allow them to
do so,” Kerry added. “My hope is they will want to join
in a constructive solution.”

Lavrov said after the talks in Montreux that all had gone as
expected, lauding the breakthrough in relations between the
Syrian government and the opposition. He added that he would
continue to seek Iran’s involvement in the talks, and that other
domestic opposition groups – such as the National Coordination
Committee of Kurdish groups – should also participate.